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Saturday, April 15, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched BHIM Aadhaar app for retailers and merchants which lets citizens make purchases without their smartphone or even credit/debit cards.

The app authenticates a customer’s
biometric details linked to his Aadhaar account through fingerprint scanner.
The app can thus does away with the need to remember banking details such as
PINs and make cashless transactions simpler and hassle-free.

How BHIM Aadhaar app works?

The app authenticates a customer’s biometric details linked
to his Aadhaar account through fingerprint scanner. The app can thus does away
with the need to remember banking details such as PINs and make cashless
transactions simpler and hassle-free.

BHIM Aadhaar works on National Payments Council of India’s
(NPCI’s) existing product -- Aadhaar Enabled Payment System
(AePS). “This will directly cater to about 40 crore bank account
customers spread across the country whose account is linked with Aadhaar. It is
a huge opportunity for enabling digital transactions as about 99 percent of
adult population is now Aadhaar-enabled,” said AP Hota, Managing Director and
Chief Executive, NPCI.

Who can get BHIM Aadhaar app?

BHIM Aadhaar would be applicable for retail merchants
(individuals and sole proprietors) only and not for corporate merchants.

At present, over 30 banks are participating on BHIM Aadhaar
and more member banks shall be on-boarded, Hota said.

Infosys Ltd on Thursday appointed independent
director Ravi Venkatesan as co-chairman, a move seen as a step taken by the
company board to end the public spat with the IT firm’s founders, mainly N.R.
Narayana Murthy.

Infosys co-chairman Venkatesan has been on the
Infosys board since April 2011.

“Ravi will help me enhance the board engagement
in supporting the management in execution of the company’s strategy,” Infosys
chairman Seshasayee said, asserting that his name was not mooted by the
promoters. “I wanted the bandwidth to be increased and the board said let us
get Ravi to take part of your load...and so there we are together on this.”

Seshasayee said the move should not be interpreted
as being a response to Infosys founders’ alleging corporate governance lapses
and demanding restructuring of the board.

Asked if he would play peacemaker between the
two sides, Venkatesan told CNBC TV18 that he did not see the need for an
“official peacemaker role”.

“I live in Bangalore and most of the promoters
have been friends of longstanding. We regularly and routinely run into each
other. So, that sort of friendly relationship will continue. But I don’t see
the need for an official peacemaker role,” he said.

Seshasayee said the need for such a role arises
only where there is a war.

“I have consistently said there is no war, the
Infosys chairman said.

In a statement, Infosys highlighted Venkatesan’s
“valuable contribution to the development of strategic direction of the company
during his tenure”.

The appointment of Venkatesan as Infosys
co-chairman comes against the backdrop of a tussle between Infosys founders and
the management over contentious issues such as CEO Vishal Sikka’s salary,
severance package to former employees and corporate governance standards.

Sikka, meanwhile, declined to make specific
comments on whether the management expected the expansion of the board to
address founders’ concerns.

“I have no idea whether it will get worse, get
better or remain the same. We (management) have had a very strong relationship
with the board. Board’s primary function is governance and our job is strategy
execution,” he said.

Emphasizing that he enjoyed a “great working
relationship” with Venkatesan, Sikka said “running the company is our
responsibility and that is what we focus on”.

Sikka highlighted that “unanticipated execution
challenges and distractions” as partly affecting the company’s performance in
the March quarter. He, however, declined to elaborate on the statement, merely
saying, “I need not tell you what the distractions have been. It is our job to
manage the company to lead the company in the times that we are in.”Agencies

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Texas Instruments (TI) India, has hosted the “DIY with TI”
event designed to recognize and encourage TI hobbyists who innovate in their
spare time using TI devices, and showcase their creativity with innovations
that help solve real-life problems. More than 40 engineers got together in
teams at TI in India and showcased their passion for creating simple and
innovative solutions by showcasing 15 interesting demos across home automation,
agriculture, education, personal electronics, renewable energy, healthcare,
etc.

This year, S KeerthiBala Viswanatha, Priyankar Mathuria, Ankur
Patel, Aarti Malgaonkar won the Chief Geek award for their DIY
project ‘Non-invasive Blood Sugar Prediction’. The winners were
chosen based on the potential of this application for creating future smart
cities. Also, Abhijit Ray, Tarunvir Singh, Gaurang Kuchchal were recognized as
runners-up for their project on ‘FINDO-track your valuables’. There were other
notable projects in the realm of making solar energy harvesting with a
smart tracking system, cloud based tracker to measure electrical power
consumption in home, a pen that can remember what you scribbled- no paper
required.

“We are proud to continue to host the ‘DIY with TI’ in India to
encourage TI hobbyists, develop and demonstrate their innovations by
collaborating & sharing ideas with other DIY-ers. These innovations are
created in their own time. The worldwide program, works as a catalyst to enhance
their problem solving skills in the most engaging manner. This helps us to
recognize the talented engineers across all TI offices globally,” said Santhosh
Kumar, President and Managing
Director at Texas Instruments India.

‘DIY with TI’ is a global event held within TI in its U.S.,
Germany, China and India offices. The event aims to nurture a culture of
innovation in TI by providing a platform to TIers that helps them explore
alternate and newer ways to solve a problem by doing what they love.

Asia Jewels Fair ’17, one of South India’s most
Glamourous Jewellery Exhibition is hosting its 11th edition in
Bengaluru city from April 12-14, 2017. The Grand jewellery fair will take
place at the Ritz-Carlton situated at 99, Residency Road in Bengaluru from 10.30
a.m to 8 p.m. This show is a very exclusive one as for the first time the
expo will showcase never seen before best jewellery designs from top handpicked
jewelers from across India..all under one roof.

His Highness Yaduveer
Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the 27th and present titular Maharaja of Mysore and head of the former ruling Wadiyar dynasty and His wife Trishika Kumari graced the occasion
of Inaugurating "Asia Jewels Fair 2017"

Speaking on the occasion, Harish Sachdev, Director- Introduction
Trade Shows Pvt Ltd, ‘ Akshay Tritya
festival is most precious day to buy jewellery, Asia Jewels fair expo is one
such much platform for all it’s customers to Pre book best jewellery this
festive season all under one roof’. On display are best award winning and international jewellery designs from top 40 handpicked jewellers from across
India. Avail Best Offers, Witness the Unseen & Feast your eyes with
dazziling new concepts in jewellery. Dont Miss it ..Be there its only at The
Ritz Carlton,Bangalore from April 12 to 14.

“Asia Jewels Fair
is one of the finest jewellery exhibitions in the city. Pre book your jewellery
for the upcoming Akshay Tritya festival & for all the prospective grooms
and brides, a fair like this is a one stop-shop that brings some of the best
jewellery, design and precious stones under one roof. It is the perfect
destination to buy exquisite and world class jewellery in South India.”

On display were luxury jewellery designs from top leading brands
of Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Surat, Kokata , Hyderabad creating the
most glamorous and spectacular platform for all branded jewellery. Adding to
the exquisite display was a dazzling array of International jewellery designs,
from top most brands all over India like:

Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE) and Deakin University,
Australia has announced a strategic alliance to start education and training
programs and establish Data Science and Cyber Security Centre of Excellence.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Professor Jane den
Hollander AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of Deakin University and
A P Ramabhadran, Senior Vice President, Manipal Global Education Services.

This MOU marks the coming together of two dominant professional
education providers to formulate and derive solutions to valuable corporate and
societal problems and construct new machine learning technologies to
interrogate relevant data. The scope of this engagement involves solving sector
specific big data problems, developing new knowledge and practices in new
complex problems and bringing methodological consistency that are particularly
relevant to the Indian context.

Expanse of Internet in India has led to a quick adoption of
technology by businesses and enterprises. The Digital India initiative by the
Government is accelerating the adoption of Digital Technologies by its
citizens. Increasing use of technology in the form of Mobile Banking and
Payment Wallets, eCommerce and Online Education are opening avenues
for cyber-crimes and cyber-attacks on banks, large
financial institutions, manufacturing organizations and hacking of personal
information from social media sites. These incidents have the potential to
cause heavy disruptions in the Digital India initiative designed to transform
the country.

Ranked in the top two percent of world universities by Academic
Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Deakin University is
a world-class institute with cutting-edge facilities and
renowned quality of research and teaching. Backed by a strong cyber security
department, Deakin offers various courses, certificates and research offerings
in the sector. The Centre for Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics (PRaDA) at
Deakin University discover patterns in big and lean data, and use these insights
to solve real-world problems. Researchers at PRaDA develop new tools
and technologies that harness data for practical use.

The Cyber Security
course under this MOU will offer sound knowledge and understanding of threats
and challenges, concepts and practices applied in Cyber Security. Curriculum
will be industry specific and students picking up the courses will also learn
the skill of computer crime and digital forensics, evaluating software for
security vulnerabilities, designing secure databases, securing operating
systems, performing risk assessments, integrating security requirements into
new developments, designing secure network architectures, assessing and
reinforcing the security of websites, responding to cyber security incidents.

Students will develop skills that are crucial to the success of
the country’s digital future while gaining the expertise required to take on
roles as an expert on Cyber Security and Data Sciences in technology companies,
government organizations and law enforcement agencies.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr H Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor Manipal
University said “Manipal
University and Deakin have always enjoyed strong collaborative relationship.
With the signing of the MOU, the relationship with Deakin deepens by ushering
in an era of professional education partnership along with the strong
university relationship."

A P Ramabhadran, Senior Vice President, Manipal Global Education
services said “The
MOU enables Manipal Global’s professional services arm to bring in solutions to
industry which can help solve reskilling challenges in the digital and cyber
security space. The Centre of Excellence will throw open solutions already
existing with the "Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics Centre” at
Deakin Australia to solve analytics challenges faced in the healthcare, IT and
BFSI sectors. In addition, the COE will also work to solve, through cutting
edge Machine Learning and Big Data solutions, the larger societal challenges in
India relating to Financial Inclusion, Education and Healthcare" he added.

The COE intends to investigate and discover valuable problems in
key technology areas in the Indian ecosystem – health, insurance, banking,
security and education. It will add early value into the corporate sector by
enabling it to solve problems which have already been tackled globally, hence
enabling translation of global learnings with speed into India.

Dr. Yogesh Bhatt, Head and Director of Manipal Global Academy of
IT said “It is a very exciting
time as the Indian IT industry embarks upon a transformation journey
necessitated by a combination of environmental factors that include
technologies in digital age, automation and global trend of protectionism and
localization. While these factors pose a significant challenge in the short
term, if we look at history of Indian IT industry, we have always responded to
external challenges, recovered from the setbacks, and benefitted from the same.
As I see, there is a great opportunity for Indian IT Industry to focus on
skilling current and future IT workforce on new age skills. Manipal Global
Academy of IT and Data Science has been working towards this mission with many
of our Industry partners. This MOU with Deakin university is a very significant
step for us, where we can combine the deep expertise and research capabilities
of Deakin University, with the industry focus, industry partners and
scalability capabilities of Manipal Global.”

Commenting on the
alliance, Professor Jane den Hollander
AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of Deakin University said, “We
are delighted to partner with a reputed education provider like Manipal Global
which has a history of delivering unmatched education and deep rooted corporate
connects. The COE intends to develop innovative solutions for relevant
societal problems through data and work with corporates to deliver creative
solutions. Our courses are specifically designed and tailor made to get hands
on experience in sectors like BFSI, IT and Manufacturing which are prone to
threats.”

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

French technology major Capgemini is targeting to train each
of its 1 lakh employees in country in digital skills by 2018 as the contours of
the outsourcing market undergoes radical changes, a top official has said.

The company is also ramping up its hiring of
freshers and plans to take the number up to 40 per cent of the total hires in a
year from the 15-20 per cent now.

"We will touch each of our employee as part
of the training programme with new skills in digital an as part of the
training programme with new skills in digital and cloud. The idea is to make
them future-ready," Capgemini chief operating officer for India Ashwin
Yardi said.

He said at 1 lakh employees, the India
operations account for 54 per cent of Capgemini's global work force, and work
on the newer digital technologies constitutes 30 per cent of the revenue at
present.

The company makes an assessment where it tests
the aptitude of each employee before making her go through the best-suited
training module, Yardi said, adding the minimum training is for 8 hrs which can
go up depending on the module.

The company started the programme in early 2016
and has already finished training nearly 60,000 employees.

The training is imparted using both the classroom as well as
specially-created online modules, Yardi said.

There is a stress on online modules which helps
an employee continue working on the ongoing project while learning newer skills
post-work, and ensures the company does not compromise on the utilisation
levels, he said.

The company always had 40 hrs of training which
was mandatory per year, Yardi said, adding this was in older "legacy
technologies" and the focus nowadding
this was in older "legacy technologies" and the focus now is on the
newer technologies.

Identifying the need to change, all IT majors
have been investing massively on training in the last three years. The largest
software exporter TCS had in 2015 said it would be training 1 lakh of its
employees in a similar programme.

Capgemini's India head Srinivas Kandula had
recently pointed out to the deep-rooted deficiencies in the our education
system, saying 65 per cent of the employees in the sector are not trainable.

Asked about Capgemini's assessments, and what
happens to those who cannot make it, Yardi said those who are unable to cope
with can do legacy IT work which still constitutes for 70 per of the revenue.

"There would be a very few who don't have
the competence to be in the new system. If they are not, they for some reasons
don't have the aptitude or the attitude to be in the new. There is enough work
for them to do in the old," he said, but warned they will be at
"risk" five years down the line as they'll become "less
relevant" or even "obsolete".

Even as many of its peers rethink on outsourcing
given rising protectionist tendencies and tepid business outlook, the company
is ramping up hiring here and will increase the focus on freshers.

"Our decision is based on the overall
revenue growth. We are still building the offshore story and there is still a
huge amount of appetite in Capgemini," he said.

Without giving the absolute quantum, Yardi said
it is looking to up the number of hires from campuses to 40 per cent of the
total from 15-20 per cent earlier.

Yardi said the company has 35 institutes
identified as strategic colleges from which it hires, and added that there
are 30 others it will be visiting in the new season.

The idea to get best quality talent is to do
visit the campuses in the first five days of placements where up to 70 per cent
of students get job offers, he said.

Shell has opened a new major technology hub in Bangalore, India, expanding the company’s R&D activities in Asia. The 52-acre, custom built technology center can house up to 1,500 experts working collaboratively on innovative projects worldwide. Shell Technology Center Bangalore (STCB) brings together R&D staff who previously worked at separate locations in Bangalore and also provides additional space for high-tech innovation and demonstration facilities. By housing all R&D staff in Bangalore in one center, the technology hub will create new opportunities for multi-disciplinary collaboration, and drive relevant and affordable innovations. The new center houses a variety of technical experts, laboratories and technology demonstration units. Photo: Shell. “Innovation and technology are vital to providing more and cleaner energy solutions for a growing world population,” says Harry Brekelmans, Shell’s projects and technology director. “We consider R&D a fundamental part of Shell’s past and future success. Therefore we continue to invest in people, projects and facilities, such as this high-tech hub. “Successful innovation, however, is more than just making balanced investments. Collaboration across different disciplines and with other sectors externally is a key enabler of successful innovation. And collaboration is essential to meet our biggest challenge: timely development and deployment of the best and affordable energy solutions, for today and for the future as the world transitions to a low carbon energy system. Our new Bangalore technology hub brings together the right people in a city that buzzes with innovation.” The new center houses a variety of technical experts, laboratories and technology demonstration units. It is home to a wide spectrum of technical disciplines and specific expertise in fields such as liquefied natural gas, subsurface modelling, data analysis, engineering design, bitumen, distillation and enhanced computational research. The center is also helping to pioneer efforts to turn forestry, agricultural and municipal waste into transportation fuels, with a new demonstration plant being built at the site. Specialists at Shell Technology Center Bangalore work closely with experts from external industrial partners, universities and institutes. These collaborations help ensure a healthy influx of new ideas and speed up the deployment of new technology in our operations. Examples include chemistry and catalysis research with the Indian Institutes of Technology and collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the area of advanced computing. Shell Technology Center Bangalore is one of the three main technology hubs in the company’s global network of R&D centres, with the other two located in the Netherlands and the U.S. More than 4,000 staff work at these hubs and smaller technical centers on a broad range of projects, such as turning natural gas into more efficient and cleaner fuels, developing affordable technologies to unlock energy thousands of meters below the sea surface, and R&D projects on low carbon technologies.

Self-drive
car rental service Zoomcar is gearing up for a large-scale roll out of electric
vehicles on its platform, which will be owned and offered on rent by its
associates, in an effort to expand its user base. As part of this initiative,
the company on Monday tied up with Mahindra Electric.

Zoomcar believes that
over 80% of its fleet will be under ZAP, Zoomcar’s fractional car ownership
programme by the end of 2017.“Currently, Zoomcar owns and operates over 3,000
cars that we rent out to customers. Henceforth, the company will not maintain
its own fleet but encourage individuals to buy and rent out cars on its
platform,” Greg Moran, founder and CEO of Zoomcar told the media.

Till date, the company has raised over $45 million funds. Greg said, “The ZAP
programme allows individuals to purchase the e2oPlus on Zoomcar’s self-drive
platform, list the vehicle on a dynamic basis whenever idle, get bookings from
Zoomcar’s customer base and earn cash to help offset the monthly ownership
costs (by sharing in the profit on a daily, weekly and monthly basis).”

Mahindra Electric CEO Mahesh Babu said, “Currently, the cost of acquisition of
an electric car is high and makes retail customers think twice before going
ahead. With this partnership, we are addressing that issue.”

Aimed at bringing transparency and Ease of Doing Business in procurement
of materials in national transporter, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will
launch digital contract, a new system of digitisation of its entire supply
chain across all zones of Indian Railways on Tuesday.

Digital contract is a seamlessly integrated digital supply chain, involving
stakeholders including industries, financial institutions, internal customers
of railways and inspecting agencies to create an efficient, responsive and
transparent system, said an official in railways.

The system includes digitisation of processes like bill submission, inspection,
dispatches, receipt, bill passing and bill payments, warrantee monitoring and
enabling use of analytics for increasing supply chain efficiency in real time.

Though the railways already initiated 100% E-tenders and E-auctions in several
of its areas, proposed digital contract is another step to ensure transparency
and seamless flow of material, finances and information.

Digitisation will enable use of analytics for decision-making, reduce
inventories and reduce procurement cycle time leading to reduced cost of
products/services, said the official.

At present, the supply chain of Indian Railways is regulated through a single
online website, which handles more than Rs 50,000 crore procurement through
100% E-tenders annually.

The supply chain also handles more than Rs 2,500 crore auction sale through
100% E-auctions in a year. This huge supply chain is managed from the zonal
headquarters and production unit levels.

Any transformational change in such a huge supply chain requires innovative and
out of the box solutions, while being within the public procurement systems,
said the official.

Flipkart has announced
the acquisition of eBay India unit in an all-cash deal and decided to keep it
as a separate entity as part of its game plan to compete with its Indian
ecommerce arch-rival Amazon. Flipkart’s eBay acquisition will give access to
C2C ecommerce market globally.

The deal comes as a part of Flipkart’s 11th round of fund raising of $1.4
billion at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 billion. Besides eBay’s $500
million investment, the funding is led by other blue chip companies like
Chinese Tencent and Microsoft.

eBay, which is also a minority investor in Snapdeal, started its ecommerce
business in India in 2014. Flipkart’s eBay acquisition will give the company
access to consumer-to-consumer (C2C) ecommerce market.

As per the statement issued by Flipkart, the investment by eBay is accompanied
by a strategic commercial agreement with it. “In exchange for an equity stake
in Flipkart, eBay is making a cash investment in and selling its eBay.in
business to Flipkart. eBay.in will continue to operate as an independent entity
as a part of Flipkart,” states the Indian ecommerce giant.

Flipkart and eBay have also signed an exclusive cross-border trade agreement.
As a result of the partnership between Flipkart and eBay, customers of Flipkart
will gain access to the wide array of global inventory on eBay, while eBay’s customers
will have access to more unique Indian inventory provided by Flipkart sellers.
Thus, sellers on Flipkart will now have an opportunity to expand their sales
globally.

In a statement issued to DH, eBay President and CEO Devin Wenig said, “The combination
of eBay’s position as a leading global ecommerce company and Flipkart’s market
stature will allow us to accelerate and maximise the opportunity for both
companies in India. Our exclusive global trade partnership will allow eBay and
Flipkart to reach even more consumers around the world.”

The ecommerce industry watchers find that the merger decision of eBay marks a
significant victory for new Flipkart chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy.
Besides helping his turnaround initiatives, Krishnamurthy also plans to go for
Flipkart’s much-delayed IPO.

According to a senior official who worked with eBay India, the company made
only minimal investment in India compared with other regions and now took the
call to go for investments in India. “It is indeed great to hear that eBay
decided to invest in the Indian market. Exactly they are replicating the South
Korea model where they had a successful investment in Gmarket and Auction
platforms,” he said.

eBay reported losses of Rs 262 crore for the year ended March 2016 in
comparison with Rs 172 crore in 2015. Also, it recently replaced India head
Latif Nathani by Vidmay Naini.